Tantivvy (oz3734)

About this Plan

Tantivvy. Control line racer. 27in span class B Team Racer by Chas Taylor. From Aeromodeller Annual 1953.

Quote: "The particular items on a Team Racer that come in for more than the usual share of hard work are the undercarriage and the control system. With the U/C, it is advisable to make this of at least 10 SWG piano-wire, which in turn should, if possible, be bolted or otherwise most securely fixed to some robust portion of the construction, such as a ply bulkhead or the bearers. If the landing gear is kept as short as possible within the limits of safe prop clearance, this does afford a greater degree of rigidity, as well as creating less drag.

Fairings for the U/C legs do also help streamlining, but it is significant to note that next to none of the 'top men' favour such luxuries, presumably because of their usual impracticability. Here again we have a case of appearance and theoretical efficiency being discarded in favour of down-to-earth, reliable and functional operation.

Controls must be constructed with no possible chance of their failing - they will only do so once! I have found myself, in the past year or so, of really fast models, copying a clubmate's habit of employing a 1/16 mild steel bell-crank, and found more peace of mind since.

Lead-out wires should not need to be larger than 20 SWG but if the flexible variety are preferred, I would certainly recommend the use of cable employed on cycle three-speeds. For the push-rod, we have found 16 SWG piano-wire quite satisfactory, but this should be supported by formers, fuselage sides, etc. to obviate the possibility of elevator flap, a thing which I have only once experienced but found most disconcerting at 90 mph.

Some small mention should be made, I suppose, of the fact that Team Racers are intended by the rules to look semi-scale, although a great deal of discussion has already taken place on this subject in the model mags. Around all the practicability and efficiency of your model, it is a most satisfying feeling to know that you have tried to combine with these essential qualities as much in semi-scale appearance as is within the scope of your own particular artistic capability. If people choose to think of my models as gruesome-looking monsters, then they are perfectly entitled to do so, but at least one has the satisfying knowledge that the effort has at least been made to stick as near as one can to the rules... "

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Update 25/02/2018: Added PDFvector plan tracing and article pages, thanks to hogal.

Update 12/09/2018: Replaced this plan (the bitmap one, that is) with a clearer copy, thanks to DBHL, theshadow.

Scan from DBHL, cleanup by theshadow.

ref DBHL-7532.

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Supplementary file notes

Article.
VectorPDF plan tracing (hogal).

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